4 ms·
Setting aside the rhetoric of Schäuble and his supporters, is there any defensible argument for the capacity of this (or future) Greek administrations to enforc
by wozniacki 11y ago
Setting aside the rhetoric of Schäuble and his supporters, is there any defensible argument for the capacity of this (or future) Greek administrations to enforce fiscal discipline on its peoples.
There is nothing to suggest even affluent Greeks want to pay their share of the tax burden.
From a Der Spiegel article, five years ago:
His staff have become very creative when it comes to
tracking down tax offenders: They use police helicopters
to fly over Athens' affluent suburbs and make films of
homes owned by doctors, lawyers and businesspeople. They
use satellite pictures by Google Earth to locate country
villas, swimming pools and properties. And these tactics
have revealed that the suburbs didn't have 324 swimming
pools, as was reported, but rather 16,974.
Tax fraud investigators spent a number of weeks on
nightclub parking lots in Athens and noted down the
registration numbers of luxury sedans. Their
investigation revealed that approximately 6,000 car
owners have vehicles worth €100,000, but only reported
to the tax authorities that they have an annual income
of €10,000.
[1] Finding Swimming Pools with Google Earth: Greek Government Hauls in Billions in Back Taxes
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/finding-swimming-pools-with-google-earth-greek-government-hauls-in-billions-in-back-taxes-a-709703.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/finding-swimming-...